Second books and second chances: Guest post from Ant Richards, author of 'Damned If I Don't'

Well hello there. Long time no see. 

(Unless you were just on here yesterday, IDK, I promise I'm not a stalker.)

This week, we've got a guest post from author Ant Richards. Learn about the process behind his new collection of short stories, Damned If I Don't, and decide if you're secure enough in yourself to crack it open....

They left the building hand in hand and walked towards Matt’s car; Mel blushing and Matt feeling like a million dollars.

‘This is my beauty,’ Matt announced, proud as they reached to where he had parked his car.

Mel was impressed at the sight, mainly for the wrong reasons. The car, a ’82 Ford Fiesta, had certainly seen better days. With a few small dents here and there, a few minor scratches and signs of rust around the wheels, it resembled its owner; juvenile, rough on the edges, with a European flair to it, defiant, rebellious, yet cute and loveable.

Matt opened the passenger door for Mel and invited her in.

‘So Mel, what do you think, the pinnacle of class and sophistication, eh?’

‘Reminds me of you,’ she replied all giggly.

‘It’s all I can afford at the moment,’ he had replied embarrassed.

Immediately, Mel pushed up the lock under the window and made as if she was about to open the door and get out of the car.

‘What are you doing?’ Matt feared his battered, little, un-American car had scared her off.

‘You see, I’m not sure whether I’m supposed to ride in the car or help you push it.’

"The Full Circle"

Running naked, splashing the warm foam of the recently crashed wave on the sand on a sunny summer morning is priceless. Accidentally stepping on a hole, you could have sworn wasn’t there and falling face first on the sand is, well, stupid. But that’s the way it ends. All the time.

Jimmy Kerr’s eyelids feel heavy, dry, and grainy. Nevertheless, he still makes the effort. As his eyes adjust to the dimly lit room, he sadly realises nothing has changed. Same dream. Same ending. 

Repeatedly and ruthlessly cruel.

Has another day passed?

Just an hour?

He couldn’t care less. There is no way of knowing, so why bother?

"The Sentence"

While wrecking my brains trying to complete what would become my debut novel In Your Dreams, finding the time, the inspiration, and basically, the will to continue writing, I came across loose ideas to add to the storyline.

As sometimes happens, they didn’t necessarily fit in with the original story I was working on, but after discarding a few ideas, I decided to keep some of them as they came along in my head. At the time, I had joined Wattpad, and then it occurred to me that it would be a good idea to turn these loose ideas into short stories. That way, besides being a good writing exercise, and a way to churn out more ideas to add to In Your Dreams, it could be a good way to showcase my writing to other Wattpad members, and start growing an audience in preparation for my first book’s release.

In Your Dreams was released in July 2014, and in between trying to market that title and life getting in the way, I continued developing these short stories. I must have had three or four by that time.

I then decided that this collection of tales could be my second release.

Working on these short stories I believe really helped develop my writing style, and taught me that there was no need for clever, complicated words to convey an entertaining and easy-to-understand message. It was a great learning curve that taught me that simple is usually more effective.

I explore various different genres with these stories, always however, keeping a few common aspects. In each story, irrespective of its genre, there is an element of dark humour, regret, false hope at times, but ultimately, a moment of lost opportunity. Oh, and the South East London element of some of my characters or locations. Damned If I Don’t, therefore, became a fitting title for these tales.

Life is a journey of opportunities, decisions, and tests. The means and tools are scattered throughout our life and it’s up to us to decide which we use or which we ditch. More often than not, we will decide on the outcome depending on what choices we make and what risks we take.

So, if you love short tales packed with romance, suspense, dramas, South East London gangsters, speakeasies in Spanish beach towns, bad decisions, even worse behaviour, a ruthless enforcer and a missing cell phone then you shouldn’t miss reading Damned If I Don’t. After all, what can possibly go wrong?

It’s available on Amazon in e-book and paperback format.

But hurry, you won’t always get a second chance.

Ant Richards